Trust is slow to build, but hard to lose
by Pinkblurlover
Summary: Kataang Oneshot - Something changed after Aang learned Firebending. Everyone has to face their problems, now it's their turn.


Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar:TLA or it's characters.

**Trust is slow to build, but hard to lose**

Points of light, Flashes of fire. This is what the western air temple woke up to every morning. Aang found it easier to connect to the element of fire since the Dragons, but training was still necessary. Progress came slow and not without setbacks.

Bandage covered his hands. Normally he would've asked Katara to heal them, but something changed. It was subtle at first, a look, a glance and an errant somewhere away from him. But it all changed four days ago.

It was two days after the meeting with the two great dragons. Aang was trying to control his newfound ability, with increasingly spectacular moves. Zuko told him to take it slow, and if only he listened. Katara never watched him practice, but he hardly noticed, focusing solely on the task at hand.

Then it happened. During an complicated move that required a lot of energy he bended the flames into a grand display of power.

Then she walked in.

He stopped immediately, but the harm was done. She didn't get burned, it would be preferable to have that moment back again. She looked at him with eyes he had never seen before.

She.. was scared of him.

He didn't see her again that day, and never saw her again near the training site. Aang decided to train away from the camp to make her more comfortable, but really more to hide his pain. He had accidents, burns while trying to figure out counter-moves, but he couldn't face her.

To have the woman you love fear you, it is a strike to heart. Every time he thought about it he felt the scar on his back hurt, as if the healing power seeped away through the memory.

So he didn't. He Trained, practiced and complete immerged himself in the oncoming fight. But now that it was drawing near he realized he couldn't fight the Fire lord with a broken heart. He needed to see her, to hear her, to love her, to make her see him with the same eyes again.

The sun was low that evening, sparkling off the fountain. She sat there, immersed in thought, at the edge of the stone basin. She didn't hear him approach.

"_Another time light feet helped me."_

"Katara?"

"Oh, hi Aang. What happened to your hands?"

Slowly unwrapping the bandages several burns are revealed. What he feared happened almost instantly, she gasped and her eyes showed that slight change he noticed before. Her face didn't change though, it never did. Gathering a little water she took his hands and started healing.

"Katara, we need to talk."

"Not now Aang, I need to focus."

So he stood there, watching annoyance and motherly instinct transform in slight fear. When she finished, she released his hand and looked away. This was it, now was his time to be strong. He took her chin and turned her face back to him.

"No! You can't do that, you can't look away from me while I'm trying to talk to you!"

"What do you mean?"

"You.. can't just act like nothing has happened... I see it in your eyes, Katara. I see how you look at me. I can't have you looking at me like that. Do you know how much that hurts?"

Tears started to well up in his eyes, but he didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered but the girl in front of him.

"Something changed between us, Katara, and I can't keep on going pretending it didn't. Please…"

He grabbed her hands and looked in her eyes, almost pleadingly.

"Please.. talk to me."

"Aang, I'm so sorry."

She was on the verge of tears and her eyes glossed over, if only for a second.

"Every time I see you firebend, I see.. I see my mother Aang. I see the hurt and suffering the Fire nation has caused me. The pain it caused my brother, how my family got broken up. I can only see the flames, and not you Aang."

"I'm not them, Katara, I never will be. I cannot do this without you, I cannot look at the world every day without you to brighten up the morning. I cannot live without you Katara, because I love you, and every time you look at me with fear I feel a gaping hole in my chest."

"Oh, Aang!.."

Katara's eyes couldn't restrain the tears that were building up and in an outburst of tears they hugged underneath the setting sun. The hurt wasn't healed, the wounds hadn't closed, but the love wasn't gone, and the fear would go away.. eventually. And so they stood there, underneath the sparkling water, merely holding each other.

It was enough.


End file.
